Justice Ashok Kumar Gaur of Rajasthan High Court delivering a judgment in a Writ Petition filed by Simran Raj @ Salma Nat held that the Passport Authorities are not expected to make their own independent enquiry, if there is a dispute or differences with regard to the date of birth, place of birth or name entered in the passport, especially when such entries are made on the basis of records, produced by the passport holder.

The Single Bench of the High Court held that  Passport Authority has erroneously usurped power of the Authority, who is competent to issue the birth certificate under the provisions contained under the Act of 1969 and the Rules of 2000.

Justice Gaur further held that if there is any mistake on the record already produced, based on which, entries were already made, then it is for the party, who seeks correction to produce the documents after carrying out necessary correction by the concerned Statutory Authorities, Judicial Magistrate or the Civil Court, as the case may be. The Passport Authorities are always within their competence to direct the parties to produce relevant documents either from the Authorities functioning under the Births & Deaths Registration Act or from the Judicial Magistrate or from the Civil Court, as the case may be. On production of corrected documents, the Passport Authorities are required immediately to carry out necessary correction in the passport. 

Justice Gaur further held that  petitioner, who was having two birth certificates at one point in time, had approached this Court for directing the Authorities to cancel the earlier certificate of date of birth of the petitioner, and finally same remains no more in existence and only the subsequent certificate of date of birth can be said to be a valid document, existing in favour of the petitioner and as such, she is required to be considered for showing her corrected date of birth in different documents including the passport document.

Read the full judgment:-

https://hcraj.nic.in/cishcraj-jp/pdfjs-dist/web/viewer.php?file=https://hcraj.nic.in/cishcraj-jp/storefiles/createordjud/205200200552019_18.pdf 

Case Details:-

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN, BENCH AT JAIPUR
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 20055/2019
Simran Raj @ Salma Nat Versus Union of India & Anr.